


drown in my desire for you

by ElasticElla



Category: The Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Blood and Gore, F/M, Fae & Fairies, Mild Horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-10
Updated: 2019-11-10
Packaged: 2021-01-27 00:14:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,790
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21382930
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ElasticElla/pseuds/ElasticElla
Summary: It feels like someone is watching her. Which. That’s exactly it, she’s awitch. No one should be able to get the jump on her.
Relationships: Bonnie Bennett/Malachai "Kai" Parker
Comments: 10
Kudos: 64





	drown in my desire for you

**Author's Note:**

> for the fae ficathon, [come join us \o/](https://elasticella.dreamwidth.org/22891.html)
> 
> title from melissa etheridge's i'm the only one

Her grams is dead and the milk keeps spoiling, and put like that it sounds ridiculous, it sounds insane. It’s because her dad is terrible at grocery shopping, gets distracted by other errands on the way home. That’s why. That’s it. 

(If her jewelry goes missing too, it’s coincidence not causation.)

.

It feels like someone is watching her. Which. That’s exactly it, she’s a _witch_. No one should be able to get the jump on her, there has to be magic for this. Magic may have a terrible cost, she knows it too intimately now. But she can’t stop looking over her shoulder, can’t stop hearing the echo of a breeze. There’s nothing to trade but herself, nothing that would work as well, blood lapping at her fingertips as she chants. And then-

Blessed silence. 

Until she releases her breath, faint bells ringing from afar. They aren’t real, they can’t be. (She tries the spell twice more, but the bells only get louder.)

.

There’s a face in the mirror that is not her own, and her hand nearly raises to touch it. As if she’s never seen a horror movie before, as if she knows nothing of magic. (Next to nothing, it’s something, it’s something.)

Every book she reads tells her to stop. The more you think of them, the more they will follow you. The more you know, the more danger you’re in. But Bonnie’s already past the warning signs, even Elena has noticed something off about her. Saying she smells sour, Stefan leading her away and mumbling too quiet for her to hear- but Bonnie doesn’t need to. 

A sour scent is the last sign. There’s no fighting it, not that there ever was. How could one possibly fight something that strengthened when considered? There’s no manual on it, no tips besides simply ‘don’t’. (Gee, helpful.)

The one in the mirror looks almost forgiving, soft in the way she extends her hand out as though the looking glass were liquid silver. The hand is decked out in her silver jewelry that’s gone missing, and Bonnie grasps the familiarity, steps through. 

Bonnie expected a forest with her doppelganger, slews of faeries with bells and laughter. Perhaps a doomed endless dance to join. Instead she steps out of the mirror into the same bathroom only not. It feels pristine, empty- none of her Grams’ magic has known these walls. Rather than shadows, there is brightness, sterile as a hospital. 

Rather than her fae self, there is a man before her, attractive like a punch to the face. He has dark hair and eyes, and a smile that screams untrustworthy. (A smile that also makes her want to smile instinctively, to bare her teeth.)

“Bonnie Bennett! What an honor, I was getting worried you weren’t getting my calls.” 

“I- what?” 

“Mhmm,” he threads his arm through hers, walking her downstairs and outside, half-dragging her along. “Most girls track me down after a bracelet is gone, we went through your entire jewelry box, heh.”

Bonnie bristles, “Are you gonna give that back?” 

He shakes the opposite hand at nothing and opens the front door, “Nah. Lost in transit babe.” 

Bonnie’s eyes go wide, the disconnect between her and this world so much more apparent with nearby grass and trees. She can’t- she can’t _feel_ her magic. 

“Where the hell are we? And who are you?” 

“Call me Kai. This is a mirror world. Gotta say, with all the resistance I thought you’d be smarter. Must just be pretty stubborn, pretty too.” 

“Rude.” Bonnie says, detangling herself and taking a step away from him. (He seems taller almost, must be a trick of the cold sunlight.) “Where are the others?” 

“Only us. World for two. Endless tables.” 

Panic drips down her spine, and with the absolute silence outside of them, she believes it. It doesn’t stop the instinctual protest, “Can’t be.” 

His smile widens, could split his face open with how big he grins. “I can take you back home.”

He extends his hand, clad in mismatched rings. 

“No.” 

Kai raises an eyebrow, “Very stubborn. You’ll change your mind. No one wants to be here.” 

“You are though.” 

His smile doesn’t falter, but his shoulders tense, and Bonnie presses the advantage, isn’t sure when this became a fight. “You can’t leave here. You’re stuck- what did you do to the others?” 

“It doesn’t matter _Bennett_-” 

A mostly-forgotten memory comes to surface, her Grams hitting the good stuff and talking about how she once locked away an evil faerie. And Bonnie had ignored the drunken ramblings hadn’t- 

“Malachai,” she pronounces, and the artificial glee drops from his face instantly, eyes narrowing. 

“So the old bint told you. It won’t help. You can’t bind me in this world.” 

Bonnie’s lips curl up, “I thought you wanted to return?” 

“Nice try short stuff, you just booked yourself an eternity in mi casa. Hope you like to cuddle.” 

“Yeah right-” 

“Touch deprivation is a real thing for you human types-” 

“-my Grams would have left a way out. You’re lying.” 

“Ouch. Your precious _Grams_ never visited. Tossed me in here and threw away the key.” 

“You’re- no, you’re lying. You said you could bring me back.” 

Kai grins, terrible and beautiful. “I could.” He steps closer, traces his fingertip down her arm, shivers in his wake. “I could do a lot of things.” 

Bonnie runs. 

A crackled laugh echoes behind her, and she doesn’t look back. 

.

Kai doesn’t chase her. She tries not to think about what it may mean, that either he’s confident she’ll return to him or knows she can’t find a way out. She hasn’t gotten any better about not thinking about things, can feel his laughter at the thought. 

Bonnie doesn’t eat, she knows that much about trippy non-worlds. She hungers, but it doesn’t feel urgent. She tires, but she can still keep running. (There are cars, but she doesn’t trust them. Might drive right past the solution.)

Time doesn’t pass in any measurable manner, the hollow sun a fixed point in the sky. Her phone is long dead, tossed aside in an angry fit, back in Kentucky. She can feel Kai, unnerving as it is comforting, knows he’s still in not-Mystic Falls. Bonnie is spiraling back to Virginia, dejected, when she finds them. 

The brief joy at finding other people turns to despair once she’s close enough: they’re all dead. Horribly misshapen, missing limbs and faces melted away. Closer, they look more like half-used candles than people, and she pukes up bile, throat burning. 

She heaves, over and over, nothing more to give, eyes wet and throat stripped bare. 

.

Bonnie gets in the nearest car and drives back to Virginia. To find the door now would be cruel, all too likely were she to walk. She blasts the only radio station that comes in, early 90s pop and alt rock hits, sings, screams along with them. If she stops, she might lose her nerve, can’t think about her family and friends- not when lives depend on it. Witches keep the balance her Grams always said, and that only leaves one option. (Grams must not have known about the people Kai was trapping in his realm, she couldn’t of.)

Bonnie steps on the accelerator harder, turns Etheridge up louder. 

.

Kai is lounging on her Grams’ porch when she returns, grinning way too big. “Felt you give up Bon. Finally realize all the fun you can have in an empty world? Or,” and he grins bigger somehow, batting his eyelashes cartoonishly, “did you miss me?” 

“I want to make a deal.” 

Kai jumps to his feet, eyes glowing with a manic energy. “For what? A magical leash, feeling kinky and homesick?” 

“Gross, no.” She hates that it’s a tempting offer, that maybe she could have her freedom and trap him too. “You’ll stop contacting the real world.” 

Kai laughs, “Maybe your dearest Grams forgot to tell you how faerie deals work-” 

“I know,” Bonnie interrupts, crossing her arms. 

“Then you know there’s nothing to offer me to enter such an unbreakable deal.” 

“I’ll stay.” 

“Aren’t we mighty self-confident? Save some ego for the rest of us.”

Bonnie swallows, “I saw what you did to them, all the others you tried to bring here. You can’t tell me you aren’t lonely.” 

“And did you consider,” he says, taking a step closer, making her look up at him. “That they came here, healthy and whole?” 

“They didn’t,” she says, just as much to convince herself as argue against him. 

“Mmm, gotta say this deal doesn’t sound so great for me.” 

“You’ll take it.” 

“Oh yeah baby-” 

Bonnie ignores the burning in her ears, talks over him, “You can’t leave without me. And if I have to keep searching for the stupid door home, I’ll find a way to trap you without any murder-y visitation rights.”

“Fine, this is getting dull. Agree to not trap me in the other world and we have a deal.” 

Bonnie raises an eyebrow, glares for good measure. “And let you run rampant in the real world? Yeah right.” 

“You can magic up some anti-murder boots or whatever if you don’t trust me.” 

Bonnie makes a show of thinking about it, hiding her glee at the obvious loophole. As long as she finds another witch to do the spell, Kai can be trapped. 

“Fine.” 

“Look at that, compromise- where everyone loses.” He waggles his eyebrows, “Kiss it better?” 

“A handshake won’t seal it?” 

“Nope,” Kai says gleefully, and Bonnie doesn’t believe him. 

She still leans up on her toes, pressing her mouth to his. It’s supposed to be a horrible moment that quenches any curiosity and stops her traitorous mind from thinking about Kai like _that_. 

It fails utterly. 

Kai is the first warm thing she’s felt in this world, hates how very alive she is in his arms. He groans into her mouth, and she could have him on his knees- it’s a trap, it has to be a trap. 

Bonnie breaks the kiss, takes a half-step back and tells herself to stop looking at his wet mouth. Too slow, she catches his thumb wiping the corner, drags her gaze up for him to wink at her.

“To really seal the deal, we should fuck.” 

Her hand snaps out before she thinks it, colliding with his cheek. The loud crack echoes around the empty world, and Kai laughs easy. 

“You’re right Bon, progression. I’m cooking you dinner.” 

(The worst part is how good the food tastes. It is without satisfaction, soothes none of her hunger, but the flavors themselves are perfection. And if her eyes stray to Kai more than they ought, she already knows that trap, won’t fall in it.)


End file.
